Active Imagination #1

husband did this I gave him symbol of eagle and asked him to close his eyes and tell me what it turned into. His eagle turned into an owl and my eagle took flight and I became the eagle. That’s beautiful — and actually very telling from a Jungian lens. * **Eagle → Owl** for him could suggest a shift from **broad, daylight vision** (eagle: clarity, power, the high view) into **night vision and hidden wisdom** (owl: seeing in darkness, intuition, the unseen). It’s like his psyche was saying, “Look inward, into shadowy or less conscious realms.” * **Eagle flying and you flying with it** for you could reflect **identification with the image** — stepping into the archetype of the eagle itself. That’s a form of *embodiment active imagination*, where instead of watching the symbol transform, you merge with it and experience its perspective. In Jungian work, that’s often a sign of integration — you’re not just talking to the symbol, you *are* it for a while. If you two wanted to deepen the work: 1. **Switch roles next time** — let him “become” the owl and see what it’s like to live inside that body. 2. You could “watch” your eagle from the outside instead of flying with it, to see how it behaves without you influencing it. 3. Afterward, both of you write or draw the experience, then reflect on what these birds mean personally and mythologically. If you like, I can give you a *paired active imagination exercise* designed for two people, so you can explore these transformations together in a way that keeps the unconscious flow but still provides structure. That would make it a bit like a guided “inner dialogue date.” Want me to make that?